Re: ADMIN: payment options for list membership

["Nagai, Paul" <pnagai -at- VISA -dot- COM>]

A subscription fee, no matter how modest (even 1$), will dramatically change
the size, traffic, demographics, and list-member behavior on this list ...
for good or for ill.

Because of the added complexity of subscribing to this list, the number of
subscribers will certainly fall dramatically. Jakob Nielson's analysis of
customer registration as a barrier to web usage surely translate well:
        http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html

While there is clearly too much traffic and too much noise (if unfiltered)
on this list, reducing any of that volume (both senses of the word) will
certainly reduce the value of this list to some subscribers. On the
otherhand, it will increase the value of this list to others. My personal
take on the relative change in value can be found here (Jakob again :)
        http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990725.html

Lisa H. mentioned that she didn't think it was a great idea for all those
who provide so much help on this list to have to pay to do so. Good point,
especially when the core users give more to the list than they take away
(capturing enough such altruistic core users is required for a healthy
mailing list).

Some portion of existing subscribers (who decide to pay the fee) will
undergo a subtle shift in their feeling of responsibility to the group.
(Remember your undgrad, intro-psych class and the discussion of cognitive
dissonance?) Will enough core users convert AND continue to feel that
responsibility? I don't know. Do we want to risk it? New users, gained after
the conversion of the list, will almost certainly, on average, feel less of
a responsibility to contribute. That's a bad thing.

Or maybe I'm too pessimistic.

------
Paul Nagai

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=